In the vehicle body rear part of an automobile, a storage part for storing a horizontally disposed spare tire is provided. For example, in the spare tire storage structure disclosed in Patent Document 1 (JP 62-102783 U), as shown in FIG. 6, an inclined surface 52 is formed in the rear part of a rear floor 51, and a spare tire 53 is stored in such a manner that a rear part 53a thereof is placed on the inclined surface 52. A front part 53b of the spare tire 53 is fixed by pressing a fixture 54, which is attached to the rear floor 51, from above.
In such a spare tire storage structure, when an impact load is applied from the vehicle rear, the rear part 53a of the spare tire 53 is pushed up along the inclined surface 52 inclined downward toward the vehicle front, and is turned counterclockwise toward the vehicle front. Thereby, the spare tire 53 is prevented from being pushed out in the horizontal direction toward the vehicle front.
Unfortunately, for the above-described conventional storage structure, since the inclined surface 52 on which the rear part 53a of the spare tire 53 is placed is formed on the rear floor 51, it is difficult to make adjustments so as to prevent the spare tire 53 from being displaced to the vehicle front when an impact load is applied from the vehicle rear. That is to say, the conventional storage structure has a problem in that if the angle of inclination of the inclined surface 52 is increased to ensure the turning action of the rear part 53a of the spare tire 53, the floor height of a cargo compartment in the vehicle body rear part increases, so that a space between the spare tire 53 and the rear floor 51, which can be used as a storage space, cannot be utilized, and the cargo compartment becomes difficult to use.
On the other hand, if the angle of inclination of the inclined surface 52 is small, when an impact load is applied from the vehicle rear, the spare tire 53 is not turned counterclockwise by the pushing-up action of the rear part 53a, and moves to the vehicle front, so that the load may be applied to a member present on the front side of the spare tire 53.